Post # 29

In the office...

The Sussex Street project was becoming a bit of a hassle. Therefore, Noel put it on hold on my side for a bit and sat down with it himself to, once and for all, sort it out. In the meanwhile, Noel got Yusuf and I to redraught (CAD) drawings he done by hand some years ago. It's pretty productive. We get to learn a lot while redraughting, and Noel gets a CAD record of his hand drawings. 

I am working on a 354m^2 house that was built in Rondebosch . These drawings are excellent and the design works great. For the rest of this week I had just drawn up the basement and  ground floor plans. 

Thanks,

Rukiya.

Post # 28

In the office...

And the next day... Model building with the Matriculants of Fairmount Secondary School.

Mr Lamb had asked me a while back, if I could make some time during this year to assist the grade 12's (a class of about 14) in a workshop on how to build a basic house model. Well, we decided that this Saturday The class and I would get together. I had to draw up a list of basic materials they could possibly use; for Mr Lamb to buy. I was pretty excited about this too; my first class, where I'm the one teaching! :) haha. (This also made me think about where I want my career to head to... maybe teaching/ lecturing could be an option.)

All that was needed to do was take the base information in their process documents and build their model from it. The information in their process documents contained their research, a situation, design brief, constraints, initial designs, final design, constructed drawings, etc. 

My workshop started from 9am and ended at about 5pm. I taught them about scale: they had to make the model to the scale of 1:50, and build it from the plans they had drawn (1:100). On this note if you didn't know, Mr Lamb is also a Civil Technology teacher. The model was one of the grade 12's major projects of the year. I also taught them basic techniques that I would use when making models. For the whole day each student managed to complete about 90% of  their models. The student were also assisted by the school's care-takers, Mr Lamb and one of his employees (a site builder). All that the students were left to do was to add the finishing touches to their models. 

Thanks to all the students and all the good feedback they gave me. It was a pleasure working with them.

And thank you,

Rukiya...

Post # 27

In the office...

Back to work...

This week I continued on the Sussex Street project. After finalising a sketch plan for the three town houses. I started on the Main house ( i.e. Where Noel will be staying). For the whole week I had taken some time out from draughting and started exploring the design layouts for the floor plans on some BUMF paper. Noel gave a rough idea of what he wanted, I just had to make it fit. The staircase is a bit tricky: trying to make it fit in the space on the ground floor, and making it work on the first floor as well, so that the circulation around the staircase works and at the same time fitting a guest WC beneath the staircase on the ground floor. I'm still in the process of coming up with a good layout. However, Noel has the final say. We'll see how this layout turns out. :-)

Thanks 

Rukiya :-)

Post # 26 - August block period

AND THEN CAME THE AUGUST BLOCK PERIOD! :-)

Day1

We were supposed to have done our presentations on our hub designs, but (thank goodness :D), it was postponed til later the week. I was ready for the presentation, but exhausted and tired. I was afraid I wouldn't function while delivering the presentation. 

So, the lecturers had planned for us to visit some art galleries and furniture stores in Woodstock. One in particular which we were briefed to analyze - the Stevenson Art Gallery. I really liked this walkabout, I never really knew how nice Woodstock was.

Then back at the Thomas Patulla campus, the lecturers had put together some videos for us to watch. One on the Phaeno Science Center by Zaha Hadid Architects and the other on The Thermal Baths by Peter Zumthor. I think this is two brilliant buildings to study. By the next morning we had to hand in an analysis on the "holding idea" of both buildings and it's relation to it's function, context, form and technology.

Day 2 

PRESENTING DAY! How nervous I was...

The lecturers had separated the class into two groups (A & B). First group A had gone to do their presentations, while group B had to do some brainstorming and research on the MIP. Group B (with myself) had to split in groups of 2 or 3. I had worked with Sara Savahl, it was fun, we came up with a number of ideas on how to contribute to St. Michael's Primary Multigrade School - functioning as play, seating, learning, storage areas, etc.).

Then it was Group B's chance to present. I came ready, my presentation wasn't too bad at all. The rest of the did great as well. I must say, we're pretty good for second years. :) 

Day 3 

Theory Day! 

The venue for lectures were at the Roeland Street Campus. For the morning we had just discussed a bit about the videos we had watched on Monday (Day 1), and then a bit of discussion on the MIP and any questions the class had to ask. Later the morning we had a lecture by Andre van Graan on our Studiowork; and later a lecture by Mike Rodseth on our CTD (specifically going through the booklet: "Principles of structure in buildings"). Very fruitful lectures! I learned a lot. Must say thank you to both of them. :) 

Day 4 

Symposium! :)

One of the best days of the block. Really enjoyed all of the guest speakers' presentations. I fully support 'Green Building'/ Sustainable Architecture. It's the way to go... I loved the demonstration on natural building later that day. Although I didn't get my hands dirty :-/ hehe. But it was fun to watch though..

Day 5 

"Field Trip Day"

The field trip was canceled due to the heavy rains we had. :-( However, we still managed to get some work done. We worked a bit on the MIP, where the class had to split up into groups (groups 1-4). Each of us had to decide whether we will be organizing the building materials, people providing building services, accommodation and catering or other (miscellaneous things needed for the trip to Grabouw in October/ November). I decided to join the accommodation and catering group. We had brainstormed lots of ideas. I will keep you posted on what we came up with later. Check the MIP tab for updates.

Thanks for reading,

Rukiya. :)    

Post # 25

In the office...

First week of fasting.. gone... Went so quick!

This week was focused on planning ans design. I got back onto the Sussex Street project [reminder: Noel's property (the demolition of his house to build 3 town houses)]. This time we approached it with a different design idea. The position of the townhouses were set, therefore we had to work with the inside space (figuring how the inside spaces would best relate to each other.). But this is still a working progress, no actual final decisions made. So for now we're still in the sketch plan stage...

Thanks 

Rukiya...